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Paola Corso
Paola Corso (May 28, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American fiction writer, poet, and essayist. Corso is a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry FellowNew York Foundation for the Arts, Artists' Fellowship - Poetry, Paola Corso , 2003. and Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award Winner, and is the author of Catina’s Haircut: A Novel in Stories (2010) on Library Journal’s notable list of first novels,Library Journal's First Novels: Fall Firsts, 2010. Giovanna’s 86 Circles And Other Stories (2005), a Binghamton University's John Gardner Fiction Book Award Finalist,Past Winners, Paola Corso, 2010. a book of poems, Death by Renaissance (2004), and newly released poetry collections, The Laundress Catches Her Breath''Corso, Paola. The Laundress Catches Her Breath, CavanKerry Press, 2012. and ''Once I Was Told the Air Was Not for Breathing (2012),Corso, Paola. Once I Was Told the Air Was Not For Breathing , Parallel Press, 2012. about Pittsburgh steelworkers and garment workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Her books are set in the Pittsburgh area, where her Southern Italian immigrant family found work in the steel mill. Her themes include ethnicity, the working class, social change, and magical leaps. Corso has also written poetry books about growing up near a toxic dump that was on the EPA's Superfund List, the city's history of water and air pollution, and the link between cancer and a polluted environment in the workplace. She co-edited an anthology, Politics of Water: A Confluence of Women's Voices and wrote an introductory personal essay on the subject of industrial pollution. Formerly a writer-in-residence in Western Connecticut State University’s MFA Program in Creative and Professional Writing,Western Connecticut State University's MFA Program in Creative and Professional Writing. Corso is currently a lecturer in Chatham University's MFA Program in Creative Writing.Chatham University's MFA Creative Writing and Staff, Paola Corso. She lives in New York City. Life, career, and community organizing Corso was born in the Alle-Kiski Valley of Allegheny County, in the Pittsburgh area and lived as a young adult in the city's East End neighborhood, Squirrel Hill. She graduated from Boston College with her BA in Sociology. She continued her education at San Francisco State University, where she obtained an MPA in Public Administration/Community Organizing. In 1999, Corso received her MA in Creative Writing/English from City College of New York/ CUNY. Before teaching creative writing at the college level, Corso was a community organizer and grant writer for non-profits. She created collaborative community arts projects. She partnered with Northside Common Ministries, a Pittsburgh ecumenical organization and its members to co-write plays with Michael Winks about homelessness and hunger, based on interviews they conducted in shelters and food pantries. House of Cards was produced at Pittsburgh Public Theater and Leftovers was awarded a state grant from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Corso was also a resident writer for the National Endowment for the Arts WritersCorps in the Bronx where she introduced literary arts in hospitals and senior centers.Bronx Council for the Arts, WritersCorps. She co-founded the National Writers Union New York Local's Community Writing ProjectNational Writers Union NYC Chapter. and led writing workshops in a Manhattan shelter for single mothers. Her community service earned her a place on the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist & Communities Short List. Most recently, she co-curated the reading series, WORDsprouts at the Park Slope Food Coop in BrooklynPark Slope Food Coop, WORDsprouts event. and founded Writers in the Wall, a creative writing workshop and reading series in the Pittsburgh river town of Aspinwall.Aspinwall Civic Association Events, Writers in the Wall, Creative Writing Workshop and Reading Series, Hosted by Paola Corso. She is the daughter of Vincenza Marie Calderone and Mario Procopio Corso. Corso is married to Michael Winks; the couple has two sons, Giona Donato Mariano Corso-Winks and Mario Corso-Winks. Works Books * * * * * * Corso, Paola. A Proper Burial, Pudding House, 2003. Editing * 2007. Poems *"Dye House" and “Fannie’s Hat,” Women’s Review of Books, January 2010.Wellesley Centers for Women, Women's Review of Books - 2010 Issues, 2010. *“The Laundress Catches Her Breath in Ten Seconds,” Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, Spring 2009.Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, Issue Sentence 7. *“Oxygen for Two,” Beloit Poetry Journal, Winter 2008. *"Step by Step with the Laundress," Subtropics (journal), Winter 2006. *"Eyewitness" and "Identified," ''Feminist Studies Journal, Winter 2006. *"Once I Was Told the Air Was Not for Breathing," The Progressive, 2004.The Progressive, June 2004 Issue, Volume 68, Number 6. *“Four Hundred Tons or Twenty Five Thousand Dollars a Day,” Women's Studies Quarterly, Spring 2004. Stories *“Unraveled," Wild Dreams: Best of Italian Americana, (Fordham University Press, Fall 2008). *“Mirage,” Best Travel Writing of 2006, (Traveler's Tales, 2006). *“A Flower on the Riverbank Will Not Bloom, Will Not Die,” Epiphany, Winter 2004. *“The River Inside Her,” Sudden Stories, (Mammoth Books, April 2003). *"Jesus Behind Bars," U.S. Catholic, April 2000. Non-fiction *"What really happened: Despite her fictional license, a writer wrestles with the truth of how her great-grandparents were really killed," The Writer, April 2011. *“From Without and From Within,” Glimmer Train Press, Portland, OR, October 2010.Corso, Paola. From Without and From Within , Glimmer Train Press, Portland, OR, October, 2010. *"Coke, Clairton, and Cancer: A Three Decade Push for Reforms," Western Pennsylvania History, Winter 2007/2008. *"On Writing Against Ethnic Stereotypes," The Writer, November 2008. *"Piece by Piece: By putting it together carefully, you can create a short-story collection that adds up to more than the sum of its parts," Writer's Digest, June 2006. *"Falling into Place: Arrange your poetry with a purpose to shape your collection into a cohesive, lyrical manuscript," Writer's Digest, April 2006. *"Metered meditation: A writer takes poetic license with her prayer life," U.S. Catholic Magazine, April 2005. *"From Pittsburgh to New York (But Never Really Leaving)," Western Pennsylvania History, Spring 2004. Anthologies * “Emissions Test” in * “The Doctor Makes His Diagnosis” in * "Once I Was Told the Air Was Not for Breathing" in * "Hole" in Reviews * Bill O'Driscoll's review of The Laundress Catches Her Breath in Pittsburgh City Paper, 2013.O'Driscoll, Bill. Book Reviews: Poet Paola Corso explores work - and the conditionality of breathing. Pittsburgh City Paper, January 09, 2013. * Amanda O’Connor's review, Word for Word Poetry, Poets of Cavan Kerry Press, 2012.Word for Word Poetry, Featuring the poets of Cavan Kerry Press, Bryant Park Blog, June 12, 2012. * Regis Behe's review of Catina's Haircut: A Novel in Stories in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2010.Behe, Regis. Natrona Heights native fictionalizes the immigrant experience, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 5, 2010. * Publishers Weekly review of Catina’s Haircut: A Novel in Stories, 2010.Publishers Weekly, Catina's Haircut: A Novel in Stories, Published October 2010, Reviewed on: 08/16/2010. * Daniela Gioseffi's review of Giovanna's 86 Circles in Rain Taxi, 2006.Gioseffi, Daniela. Reviews - Giovanna's 86 Circles , Rain Taxi, Spring 2006, Print edition. * Bill O'Driscoll's review of Giovanna's 86 Circles in the Pittsburgh City Paper, 2005.O'Driscoll, Bill. Giovanna's 86 Circles By Paola Corso, Pittsburgh City Paper, September 29, 2005. * Publishers Weekly review of Giovanna's 86 Circles, 2005.Publishers Weekly, Giovanna's 86 Circles, Reviewed on: 08/29/2005. * Ann Curran's review of Death by Renaissance: Poems and Photos in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2004.Ann Curan, Poet re-creates bygone era of local river towns, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 5, 2004. * Regis Behe's review of Death by Renaissance, in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2004.Behe, Regis. Poet explores leap from Tarentum to Brooklyn in book, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 21, 2004. Honors and awards * Working Class Studies Association's Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing for "The Laundress Catches Her Breath," 2013.Paola Corso, Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing, 2013. * Sons of Italy National Book Club Selection for Catina's Haircut, 2010.Catina's Haircut, An official selection of The Sons of Italy® Book Club. * Giovanna's 86 Circles and Other Stories selected for Public and Secondary School Libraries by the American Association of University Professors, 2008.2008 University Press Books Selected for Public and Secondary School Libraries. * New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, 2003. * Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award Winner, 2000.The Sherwood Anderson Foundation, Anderson Foundation Awards, Corso. * City College of New York's Jerome Lowell Dejur Award for Creative Writing, 1999.CUNY, Annual Awards, Creative Writing References External links * Paola Corso's Website. * Chatham University Faculty Page. * Interview on CavanKerry Press, with Nin Andrews, CavanKerry Press Blog, October 2, 2012. * The Pennsylvania Center for the Book at Penn State's Paola Corso Biography by Alan Jalowitz * Tamara Kaye Sellman's Paola Corso: Magical Realism as Memory, Voice and Vision in Margin: Literary Magical Realism. Category:Living people Category:21st-century American poets Category:American writers of Italian descent Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American women poets Category:American women novelists Category:21st-century American women writers Category:Year of birth missing (living people)